Reciprocal mold plate food patty molding machines are known for the production of elongated food products such as sausages. One example of such a machine is described in Lindee, U.S. Pat. No. 4,928,591, herein incorporated by reference. Other machines that can be adapted to mold elongated food products are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. Re. 30,096; 4,054,967; 4,182,003; and 4,768,260, all herein incorporated by reference.
The machine described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,928,591 includes a food pump for use in pumping a moldable food material under pressure into one end of a fill passage, and a mold tube assembly mounted in alignment with the other end of the fill passage. The mold tube assembly includes a plurality of elongated mold tubes each of given length, each mold tube aligned parallel to a predetermined mold path and each mold tube having a fill opening aligned with the fill passage.
The mechanism further includes a mold rod assembly comprising a front drawbar, a rear drawbar, and guide means that interconnects the drawbars for maintaining the drawbars in fixed spaced relation to each other adjacent opposite ends of the mold tube assembly. Each drawbar extends across the mold path. The mechanism further includes front mold rods, mounted on the front drawbar, each projecting towards the mold tube assembly parallel to the mold path and in alignment with one of the mold tubes; and rear mold rods, mounted on the rear drawbar, each projecting toward the mold tube assembly parallel to the mold path and into one of the mold tubes. The ends of the front and rear mold rods that are aligned with each mold tube are spaced from each other by a predetermined distance “L” less than the length of the mold tube. The mechanism also comprises drive means, connected to the mold rod assembly, for cyclically reciprocally driving the mold rod assembly along the mold path between a fill position and a discharge position. In the fill position, food material flows from the fill passage into each mold tube between the spaced ends of the mold rods to form a rod-shaped food product in each mold tube of length “L”. In the discharge position, the ends of both sets of mold rods are clear of the front ends of the mold tubes and each rear mold rod fills the interior of its associated mold tube.
The aforementioned machine is effective at producing rod-shaped food products from a single food product material source.
The present inventors have recognized that it would be desirable to provide a method and apparatus for the production of food products having two materials or components. The present inventors have recognized that such method and apparatus would be particularly useful for molding elongated or rod-shaped food products containing two food components, an outer shell component and an inner filling component. The present inventors have recognized that the products of the method and apparatus could utilize poultry, beef, pork, fish or other meat material for the outer, shell component, and cheese, fruit fillings, stuffing, crab or other ingredients for the inner, filling component.